At College

9-year old Karthik was overjoyed! His summer holidays were on. His sister had her college reopening the next week. He simply enjoyed seeing  his sister prepare to go to college. He accompanied his mother to do some shopping, which usually translated to getting to see hundreds of cars speeding by, and millions of people moving about. 

He always wondered, what business did so many people have lazing around. Surely, not all of them could be working on the road! His joy was multiplied since he did not have school and his sister was preparing for college. He always had this tendency to show off his idleness, just to annoy her. He deliberately played Cricket 2007 for around 7 hours per day, with his own commentary following that of Mr. Boycott. Needless to say, his sister wasn't amused. But then, brothers dont get such golden chances everyday... 

The happiest thing for him was that he was going to visit her college too. He was thrilled. He often imagined college to be a cool place where the teachers no longer caned their students, most homeworks were given to be ignored and where people could go in color dress and without any schoolbag. ..

The joy was overwhelming when he arrived at her college. He wished her all the best, and made it a point to tell her what his plans for the rest of the holidays were....  For the first day, he decided to sneak into a class, to see what the people learnt. And since he was tiny, he couldn't be seen except by the guy behind him, who, to his surprise was quietly dozing ... 

The professor came, well he did look like a teacher,... he never understood the distinction. He wrote the topic on the board, some "Dynamic Programs." He wanted to cry out the misspelling of programme - his English Miss would have been aghast to have seen such a thing, but decided against it. Just at the time, he saw a boy, come in, with a big schoolbag. He wondered what he kept inside the bag, that noone else seemed to need. Maybe it was the books... or clothes.. or laundry... To break the reverie, that boy took out a notebook, and started writing. What was he writing? He had no idea. According to him, the professor had just written a wrong spelling on the board... Wierdos exist everywhere, he concluded. 

There were many peculiar things he observed in the class. There was a platform. The teacher did not shout "KEEP QUIET!!" even once during the period. People came in strange dresses. Noone sat in the front row. Everyone, well wierdos excluded, had just one notebook... and they were not collected at the end of the class for correction. For one thing, he doubted if anybody had written anything there. Overall, he felt amazed. 

Now he began to envy his sister for being in  a college. He fantasized that when he would go to college, he would have a flying motorbike ( surely they must be invented by then!! ), cooling glasses, a jeans pant and a t-shirt with lights!(well... maybe bcos then he could be a bright student!) ...

He came back and wondered. what did the people in the class do that he did not. He was very happy with himself. He had heard a number of times from elders that one's own happiness was what mattered in life. And he was happy enough with himself. True, he could be happier if his Mom had got him the GI-Joe and the new model of the Hot-wheels, but then there would always be another shopping session, he reassured himself. He wondered why he should grow up. Maybe to spell Programme wrong, maybe to speak to the computer more than to his own friends, maybe to complicate things that were really simple and then to derive pleasure in simplifying them, and maybe to live a happy life after all... 

Karthik's Summer

Period : Summer Vacations.

Ever since his vacations began, 9 year old Karthik was waiting eagerly for the arrival of his friend. His neighbour - Preethi akka* . He had sorely missed her , since she had gone away to study at a hostel in a college. He secretly pitied her. From what he had heard, he had formed an impression that hostels were better only to central jails. He wondered why she ever went so far away to study.

His neighbours were exceptionally good people. Since his mother had to go to work, she would often ask the aunty to take care of him, in spite of his protests. Not that he resented. The aunty's fridge was home to lots of sweets, chocolates and juices, and he marveled at Preethi akka's abstinence from such nice things. He usually went to play at their house. Akka had always been helpful- she had taught him the basics of Hindi, she used to narrate to him marvelous stories of Harry Potter. Harry Potter forced him to accept that stories other than comics could be interesting too. She was his official translator, whenever they watched Hindi/ English movies on the TV.

All this 2 years ago. Last year, she had been increasingly busy, going to coaching classes for about 4-5 "entrance tests", right from 5 am in the morning. It would be around 10 pm when she came home. He had overheard aunty pouring out her worries to his mother as to how Preethi would fare in the board exams. "Board Exams? Do they write questions on the Black-board?", he wondered. It meant a hectic schedule for akka, who was quite remarkable in taking up the challenge. This was not the first time he had heard about the Boards. Come April-May, all the news channels would carry the interviews of the toppers. It was quite another matter that all of them stated the same thing. To him, they appeared quite supernatural, being interviewed by the same people who usually interviewed the President or Rajni Kanth. It was an achievement in itself.

Akka soon completed her exams and was free as ever and their ramblings continued. She, just like him, had no friends of her age in the neighbourhood. Soon, her results were announced and to Karthik's greatest joy, she had stood first, not only in her school, but also in the entire district, scoring a staggering 97 point something percentage. Their locality was a flurry of activity. She was interviewed, her photos flashed across the TV channels. Suddenly, he felt insignificant. He had never expected her to be so brilliant. After all, shd did everything that he did. But then, he thought that you could never judge people on their face value. He added this to his list of random Philosophical Principles that he made from time to time.

Akka did not feel the same way though. She continued playing with him and telling him the movie stories. His first ambition was fulfilled. He had not only met one person whom they interviewed on the TV, he was also her friend.

She went to the college shortly after, a college in Goa, and was returning only that day. His wait soon came to an end as Akka arrived at home. The first few days were spent in an usual routine. He gathered various insights about college life. He learnt that hostels weren't like jails after all and that you could wear any dress you liked to the class. This thought excited him.

There was one thing though that depressed him. Her big fat books. He could not see how he would ever lift those books, leave aside studying them. They had a use though. They would often double up as hard pillows whenever he was at their place and was too tired after watching TV. Akka graciously allowed this. Sometimes, her friends used to call her on her new mobile phone, and she would go on talking for at least half an hour. He did notice that her way of speech had certainly changed. Her talks were now punctuated by "Cho Chweet", that it almost became a distraction.

Akka's college was one of the best in India, his parents had told him. He wondered if he would ever get an admission anywhere. He had thought that he would become a Bus-conductor or a traffic policeman, after all they held the power to scold people, and none would ever retort. He had considered being a teacher, but found that he would have to force children to do homework and cane them if necessary, and this was against his conscience. So he dropped that idea.

Recently, he had added software engineer to the list too. He had been to Chandru Anna's company the previous week and to his amazement saw almost everyone there playing Minesweeper in the AC room. But he knew that there were the frightening Board Exams, that he had to face if he wanted to make any of his dreams a reality. He grew worried for some time.

Soon he came out of his depression as he remembered Preethi Akka telling him something from a Harry Potter book- " What would come, would come and he would definitely have to meet it when it did." He only hoped that he would well at that point.

* Akka - A common term used in south india to address one's elder sister.